juntas in the peninsula; and the design of New Spain was also to instal a national junta, or congress, after the precedents established in the peninsula. While Spain was being treasonably delivered up to the dominion of Napoleon, the rights of the crown being alienated and the holy religion prostituted, the object of this congress would be to put an end to the systems of appropriation of the property of corporations, and the exaction of so-called patriotic loans and donations which were ruining the country, the rights of Fernando, however, and the ecclesiastical government being maintained; and finally, to prevent the surrender of New Spain to the French.[1] This address was signed conjointly by Rayon and Liceaga, and dated the 22d of April. On the 29th Calleja despatched his answer, in which, after commenting upon the cruel and desolating system of warfare adopted by the insurgents, and the outside danger to which it has exposed the nation, states that the government will hold no further correspondence with them, and concludes by offering them for the last time the benefit of the general pardon, on the condition that all arms, ammunition, and funds be delivered up.[2]
On the receipt of this reply, Rayon, conscious of his inability to resist the attack of Calleja, who continued his march without interruption, abandoned Zacatecas with the intention of proceeding to Michoacan. In
- ↑ Rayon y Liceaga, in Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., iii. 279-80. This manifest was forwarded to Calleja by a commission composed of Rayon's brother José" María, a Franciscan padre named Gotor, who had formerly been Calleja's chaplain and had some ascendency over him, and three Spaniards, the only ones who had remained in Zacatecas, and whom Rayon generously sent in order that they might escape from insult or outrage at hands of his troops. Calleja responded to this liberality by causing Rayon's brother to be arrested: He was, however, liberated by the influence of the conde de Casa Rul, who took this opportunity of showing his gratitude for the kind treatment he had received during the time he was a captive of Hidalgo with García Conde and Merino. Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., i. 207, 210.
- ↑ Contestacion de Calleja, in Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., iii. 280-1. Bustamante makes the strange statement that Calleja offered to maintain Rayon in possession of the funds in his power, which amounted to over $1,000,000. Cuad. Hist, i. 210. Not one word of such a proposal appears in Calleja's reply.
